Convicted killer Christopher Porco has been transferred from a downstate prison to Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security complex 170 miles north of Albany near the Canadian border, state records show.

The former University of Rochester student was transferred upstate to the prison in Dannemora, Clinton County -- three hours north of his native Delmar -- on Monday, said Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correctional Services.

Porco, 23, was sentenced to 50 years to life last month for the murder of his father, Peter, and the attempted murder of his mother, Joan, in their Brockley Drive home in November 2004.

In one of the region's most savage crimes in recent memory, Porco bludgeoned his parents with an ax -- leaving his mother near-death.

After a seven-week trial, an Orange County jury swiftly convicted Porco in August. The trial had been moved to Goshen, 100 miles south of Albany, to counteract the intense local publicity the case received.

Porco, who maintained his innocence even throughout his Dec. 13 sentencing, was first sent to Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, Dutchess County, where new inmates are processed at the state prison reception center.